IMO If you're thinking SAT phone, I'd rent one first. Partly because technology changes so fast.

Thanks Joe...... up

Options and competition are good things. I like quality and had looked at the irridium phones but I didn't like the service plans. I dunno, maybe they are all this way but it seemed (and I only looked briefly so I could be mistaken) that after you bought the phone you could only sign up for designated time blocks (as in the month of july) as opposed to "buying minutes" and using them whenever you felt like. Plus there was an activation fee to initiate service  . I thought I could just buy the phone and when I used minutes I would be billed.

The charter boat captain I fish with has Globalstar.......the phone was not expensive and he says his monthly charge was less than many cell phone plans  (I could of swore he said $50 a month),

Of course now that I feel like I am "new and improved" it is easy to look askance for the need of a SAT phone. But I will definitely be looking into the SPOT phone and doing some comparisons. Besides since I have lightened my kit I have room for some more gear 

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BillConner wrote on May 8^th, 2013 at 12:07pm:

With a little imagination and some preplanning, you could send a nearly infinite number of different preprogrammed messages using the two non-SOS Spot-2 buttons. For example:
   "I'm OK" = I'm OK
   "Custom" = I decided to delay my schedule
   Two consecutive "I'm OK"s = I'm really ok, even though I haven't moved in 5 days
   Two consecutive "Custom"s = I'm OK for now, but please keep checking email regularly in case things change
   Three consecutive "Custom"s = Not urgent, but please send outfitter to get me
   etc

You could even send morse code messages using the two buttons, but at about an hour per letter (a dot or a dash every 20 minutes), this is unlikely to be practical for most people.

For either of these approaches, you would also need some confidence in Spot's message sending reliability. My unit has been 100% reliable (so far), but I know others have had issues, and things like geography (eg high latitudes) and topography (eg Utah slot canyons) can interfere with the signal of even a perfectly functioning unit.

I gave my son a minor heart attack when I hit the "need Help" button on my SPOT.  I was back at Moose Lake landing a day or two early so thought I'd try the help button to see if I could get his attention.  I left it on, which meant it was sending a help message every ten minutes, and getting it on his phone all it said was Help, Help, Help.... 
He almost panicked until he saw my location was at Moose Lake landing.  He figured it out and was there to pick me up in a few hours. 

I guess having read of actual incidents and discussed it with my wife and sons and outfitter, not that they all agree, I'll stick with the Spot 2 three messages, summarized:  I'm OK; Pick me/us up at nearest EP or access point; and I'm/we're not able to get back on my own but I'm/we're OK for now.  I was struck by reports of actual usage and the desire for something less drastic than SOS.

Since I've never even considered one of these other than I'm OK, who knows if they are good.  The not able to get back message needs some preplanning, including looking at time, area, weather, and maybe deciding to call for a rescue.  On a motor route - like Basswood - maybe call outfitter and see if they can send a boat.  Or do nothing and see if it changes before I hit the SOS.

Not perfect, but seems better than just I'm OK and SOS, or, with a PLB, nothing and the nuclear option.

Like others, I carry SPOT and send "I'm OK" every evening. Son can figure out where I am, but wife -- not so much. And she does not check e-mail everyday and sometimes wonders why I sent several messages all saying the same thing. In such a case SOS would be lots more effective.

Never had any broken bones on one of my crews. Wind blew the canoe away once and Bill Toole swam across the lake with a paddle and brought it back. My plan was to walk around the lake and recover the canoe, but Bill said he could get it and be back before I was half way there. And he was right.

solotripper wrote on May 6^th, 2013 at 6:37pm:

I'd have to agree that sending an "in-between" message would probably cause more anxiety back home than help things. But after a year's experience owning a SPOT, both I and my wilderness-savvy, non-panicking wife agree that regular "I'm OK" messages are a good thing, and that the "SOS" button is likely to be more effective than anything she could initiate from home as well.

"I'm OK" is reassuring (and it really is a good idea for people back home to know roughly where you are), "SOS" gets you the emergency help you need fast, but I suspect anything else that suggests you have problems but doesn't specify what they are is unlikely to have much benefit. Is it a touch of flu? A broken leg you're hoping will heal in a couple of days? Signs of an incipient zombie apocalypse?

Stuck on a lake for too long probably won't give your loved ones  a warm feeling, but if they know you have an SOS button if you need it, they should be willing to take your "I'm OK" messages at face value. If not, maybe they weren't ready to deal with your going in the first place.

One solution is to get the kind of SPOT unit that lets you send short text messages. I just have the cheap SPOT-2 though, and use the "Custom Message" button to mean "Decided to delay schedule (FYI only)." Usually this means I'm windbound or stormbound, or I'm encountering excessively good weather and fishing plus a five-star campsite. I guess it could also mean something like "I'm puking my guts out in the bushes", but I haven't needed it for that yet.

But you do have to remember to send the daily messages: no news is (maybe) bad news!

My wife has gone like 5 times but they were wife type trips. My kid has no clue. I use to tell her to watch the moon because I would be watching the same one and I'll be back when it looks like whatever.

If I had the option, I would trust people who knew both me and the place, like you and your sons for instance.

One year I came home and my wife asked what happened? She screwed up and thought I was coming home the following week. That's fine by me as long as it's after a nice hug. I'd even pad my expected return date by a couple before that. I've been windbound before. Now I just tell her the real date and leave some phone numbers to ask about recent weather, basically saying give it an extra two or three days before you send in SAR.

I guess I agree with causing concern, and why my sons who have both been on quite a few trips with me and on their own or with others are the arbiters of my Spot messages or any lack there of.  My wife has only gone once but has some sense of the land.